Mr. Odhr?n Allen:

What we want is an acceptance in Irish society of the value of our autistic citizens and, therefore, training is needed. Equally, whatever about towns becoming more autism-friendly, one point we are making to the committee today is that our health services need to become autism friendly. We cannot assume that they are. In most instances, they are set up with a neurotypical person in mind. These environments can be very hostile, I do not mean behaviourally, but in a sensory context. I refer to the sensory experience of an autistic person going into an accident and emergency department. We must, therefore, do a great deal of training to ensure the mainstream services in place to provide every aspect of health services are aware of autistic people and are able to operate in a way that is autism-friendly. Taking this approach to towns and villages is then needed and Clonakilty is a model for how this can be achieved.